"Good Lord!" he said, in a startled voice. "I'd forgotten all about that business."
There was a long pause. Then Julian remarked slowly:
"Yes—I should rather like to hear the rights of that story. Perhaps, after all, Clarence Isbister wasn't quite such an ass as I always thought him."
VI
"How's the 'Tale of Two Sexes,' or whatever it's called, getting on?" flippantly enquired Sir Julian of his agent.
"Coming out any day now," said Mark, with a grin, "and the gifted authoress is coming to stay with us next month. Will you and Lady Rossiter come and dine one night? I'm afraid you'll get a very poor dinner, but you know what to expect of Sarah. I should like to make it rather more amusing for Iris, if you can face it."
"Delighted," said Sir Julian untruthfully.
The proposed entertainment was one which he had sampled before, and for which he had conceived a profound distaste.
An element of novelty was introduced, however, at the eleventh hour, when the evening of the dinner-party arrived. Mark greeted Sir Julian and Lady Rossiter on the threshold.
"A creature called Douglas Garrett has turned up, by what he and Iris call a coincidence. Of course, I had to ask the chap to dinner, and he's gone to the 'King's Head' to get his things."